China formally charges former rail minister with graft

[huskie]

The Chinese might still have been capable of building their high speed railways without this ugly dude, but it would certainly take many more years, if not decades. Being called "Crazy Liu" or "Liu Kuayue (meaning leap-forwad)", this guy developed the Chinese railways by leaps and bounds, and he's facing criminal charges of corruption and misuse of powers, two years after he was detained. Let's see if he is going to get the death penalty.

reuters report link

BEIJING | Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:41am EDT

(Reuters) - China formally charged former railways minister Liu Zhijun with corruption and abuse of power on Wednesday, state media said, the latest step in a graft investigation into the scandal-plagued railways.

Liu faces either a lengthy jail sentence or possibly death. How severely he is dealt with will be an indicator of how seriously new Chinese President Xi Jinping Xi takes his fight on corruption, one of the pillars of his new administration

Liu "practiced favoritism and carried out malpractice, misused his power and caused big losses to public property and the interests of the state and the people", the official Xinhua news agency said.

"The second intermediate Beijing court has already accepted the bribery and misuse of power case in accordance with the law and will chose a date for a trial," the news agency said.

"As a worker for the state, Liu Zhijun used his position to help others seek gain, illegally accepted wealth and assets from other people. The numbers involved were huge and the circumstances very serious," Xinhua added.

Liu took huge bribes and misused his position to help the chairman of an investment company get enormous illegal profits, according to previous accusations leveled by state media.

He has not been given a chance to defend himself in public.

China's sprawling railway system has faced numerous problems over the past few years, including heavy debts from funding new high-speed lines, waste and fraud.

The government has pledged to open the rail industry to private investment on an unprecedented scale

The ministry suffered a big blow to its image when a crash in 2011 between two high-speed trains killed 40 people.

Liu was sacked in February last year for "serious disciplinary violations" and expelled from the Communist Party three months later, in May. He had spearheaded an investment drive into the rail sector over the past decade.

Liu had successfully resisted a merger with the Ministry of Transport six years ago, but China announced in March that the ministry would be merged with the transport ministry.

Xi has made fighting pervasive graft one of the pillars of his new administration, warning the issue threatens the party's rule, though so far appears to have made little progress aside from netting a few lower-level officials.

While Liu's case attracted a lot of attention when it first broke, it has since been overshadowed by a much more salacious scandal involving the former party chief of Chongqing, the ambitious Bo Xilai.

Bo's downfall last year amid lurid accusations of murder and diplomatic intrigue unleashed division and uncertainty months before the party met to formalize a transfer of power to a new generation of leaders.

The government has yet to announce a trial date for Bo, or what charges he will face.

 

[peaceful]

No matter what is the outcome of this trial, this man will always be remembered as the pioneer of China's high speed rail.

China has corruption, there is no doubt about this. There is also no doubt about the fact that Mr. Liu Zhijun is not 100% clean. Crystal clear. The difference is, in China corrupt officials take a few % and finish the projects, while in monkey countries, officials take 90% and the project is dead.

How many kilometer high speed rail can be found in ASEAN countries? ZERO! That is the real corruption.

 

[Fsjal]

No matter what is the outcome of this trial, this man will always be remembered as the pioneer of China's high speed rail.

China has corruption, there is no doubt about this. There is also no doubt about the fact that Mr. Liu Zhijun is not 100% clean. Crystal clear. The difference is, in China corrupt officials take a few % and finish the projects, while in monkey countries, officials take 90% and the project is dead.

How many kilometer high speed rail can be found in ASEAN countries? ZERO! That is the real corruption.

Back in Philippines, we had a high speed train project with help from China. Here is a link NAIA-Clark high-speed rail project to cost $2B | Inquirer Business

Also, we had another project before that, but it was cancelled.

 

[huskie]

I think I have to agree to most of your post. I believe it is quite safe to say that besides the incredible progress achieved under his administration (this is really hard to be measured in terms of dollars), he also saved billions of dollars directly by outplaying the German and Japanese companies in the tech-transfer deals. Now he is charged of favoritism and corruption in some projects (about $1 billion is involved according to current reports). To me, it is quite clear that his contributions outweigh the money he allegedly took for his own interest groups. One example that the international media is constantly using is the Beijing-Shanghai HSR, which says that according to Chinese auditing authorities, about $75 million was embezzled or misused by local governments or construction companies in this $35 billion project and even though Liu was not directly involved, the Chinese authorities seemed to have pinned this onto him as well. However, I would be very happy if misuse of funds in public projects in the United States can be controlled at such a low level, I mean compared to those in charge of Big Dig, these corrupt Chinese officials are like saints.

But again, Liu is charged of something more serious and deadly. "Misuse of power" and "extremely huge damage to properties and people", I guess this is referring to the accident. I recall that @Genesis once mentioned that Liu fell because he lost a political battle, and this makes quite some sense. The fact that he was deemed to be responsible for an accident which happened half a year after he had been imprisoned really says a lot about this complicated case. After all China is not as simple as Rahul Gandhi thinks so.

No matter what is the outcome of this trial, this man will always be remembered as the pioneer of China's high speed rail.

China has corruption, there is no doubt about this. There is also no doubt about the fact that Mr. Liu Zhijun is not 100% clean. Crystal clear. The difference is, in China corrupt officials take a few % and finish the projects, while in monkey countries, officials take 90% and the project is dead.